Recording votes in the interest of transparency, accountability

The Comox board of education has decided to record the way trustees vote in the minutes of public meetings.

The change was proposed by trustee Fran Goldberg, who said she agreed with a call by the Comox Valley Record for votes to be recorded to improve transparency and accountability. She argued that the public has a right to know how their elected representatives vote or whether they abstain, says a story in the Comox Valley Record.

A reader, who is a school trustee in another part of B.C., expressed the same concern to me in an email recently.

“I was wondering if you would be interested in pursuing the issue of trustees being accountable for their actions by investigating how many districts actually record how individual trustees voted on motions within the minutes of public board meetings. In my district, our practice is not to record names or negative votes unless requested prior to or immediately after the vote,” said the trustee, who didn’t want to be identified.

“Unfortunately, for the majority of trustees on my board, enabling the public to know how individual trustees voted takes a backseat to board unity and blanket support for an action once the board has voted.”

If votes were recorded, “people who do not attend board meetings would then be able to find out which trustees supported what actions and evaluate whether or not to support those trustees when they run for re-election,” the trustee wrote.

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